About Parental Alienation

The parental alienation is a disorder that arises primarily in
the context of child-custody disputes. Its primary manifestation is
the child's campaign of denigration against a parent, a campaign
that has no justification. It results from the combination of a
programming (brainwashing) parents indoctrinations and the child's
own contributions to the vilification of the target parent. The
alienation usually extends to the non-custodial parent's family and
friends as well.

Many children involved in divorce and custody
litigation undergo thought reform or mild brainwashing by their
parents. This disturbing fact is a product of the nature of divorce
and the disintegration of the spousal relationship in our culture.
Inevitably, children receive subtly transmitted messages that both
parents have serious criticisms of each other.

Parental Alienation, however, is much more serious.
It involves the systematic vilification by one parent of the other
parent and brainwashing of the child, with the intent of alienating
the child from the other parent

What happens when children are denied access to a parent and
are victims of Parental Alienation?

Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 1988
A child who was separated from his or her father for a period of three
months or longer while between the ages of 6 months to 5 years old,
suffered a 2.5 to 5 times higher risk of conduct disorder, emotional disorders
and hysteria than a child that did not go through the same period of separation.

Bron, Strack & Rudolph, Univ. of Gottingen, Germany, 1991
Drastically increased suicidal tendencies were found in people who had
experienced the loss of the father.

American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 1990
Children showed the most behaviour problems if their parents were in
a legal conflict and the visitation was not frequent or regular with
both parents.

Acta Psychiatrica, Scandinavia, 1990, 1993
Scandinavian research found a significantly higher number of
attempted adult suicides for people who, in childhood, had lost a parent through
parental separation or divorce.

British Journal of Psychiatry, 1989
British researchers found that adults who suffered the loss of a parent because of separation or divorce have a significantly higher risk of
developing agoraphobia with panic attacks and panic disorder.

Canadian Children's Rights Council - See our whole section regarding fatherlessness and
single parent families for increased rates of teen pregnancy, increased suicide rates and more. According to STATSCAN, the Government of Canada statistics agency, single parent families headed by men were 20% of single parent households in October 2007. Our position is that this growing trend will produce similar negative results for motherless children.
More..

Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS): Sixteen Years Later

Academy Forum, 2001, 45(1):10-12 ( A Publication of The American Academy of Psychoanalysis ), by RICHARD A. GARDNER, M.D.

In 1985, the Academy Forum published my article,
"Recent Trends in Divorce and Custody Litigation." This was the first
article in which I described the parental alienation syndrome (PAS), a disorder
that I began seeing in the early 1980s. The Forum article is generally
considered to be the seminal publication on the PAS, parent to at least 100
peer-reviewed articles. Although this is certainly a source of gratification
for me, the sixteen years that have ensued cannot be viewed as a straight path
to glory, especially because of controversies that have swirled around the diagnosis.
I address here the reasons for the controversies and provide suggested solutions.
More..

In the end, it was one tiny voice that silenced anyone who still had
doubts that parental alienation is real and one of the most insidious
forms of child abuse.

The voice wasn't real ??? Dashiell Hart opened his arms wide and threw
himself off a Vancouver bridge eight years ago at the age of 16.

But his voice was brought to life at a Toronto conference by his
devastated mother, Pamela Richardson, who endured a 12-year court battle
with her ex-husband to try to win back the heart and mind of her son.

Dash was just one tiny soldier in the growing army of children who
are becoming collateral damage in bitter battles between ex-spouses that
are overwhelming Canada's divorce courts, the first Canadian Symposium
for Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) heard recently in Toronto.

"Over 12 years I had four different sets of lawyers trying to
convince the courts my son, who lived less than 10 minutes' drive from
me, needed to see the mother who loved and raised him," Richardson told
the conference.
More..

Study says such cases should be moved out of court system, handled by
individual judges

The Globe and Mail, by KIRK MAKIN, JUSTICE REPORTER, May 13, 2009

An escalation in parental alienation allegations is draining valuable
courtroom resources, a major study of 145 alienation cases between
1989-2008 concludes.

"Access problems and alienation cases - especially those which are
more severe - take up a disproportionate amount of judicial time and
energy," said the study, conducted by Queen's University law professor
Nicholas Bala, a respected family law expert.

"One can ask whether the courts should even be trying to
deal with these very challenging cases."
More..

The Australian, Australia's national daily newspaper, by Caroline Overington, March 31, 2009

TWO children who have been in the care of their mother since their
parents separated in 2005 have been sent from Hobart to live with their
father in Melbourne after the Family Court heard the mother encouraged
them to have "negative" feelings about their dad.

The two children - a girl, aged nine, and a boy, aged seven - had
been struggling with "change overs" between parents, saying things such
as "I don't want to go" and "I don't have to go" when their father
arrived in Tasmania from Melbourne to collect them for access visits.

The court found the mother did not discourage them from saying these
things, and did not encourage a positive relationship between the
children and their father.
More..

Read the story in the American magazine Newsweek and
then read the information provided by the court office

Newsweek wrote:

"It took six years for Genia Shockome to gather the courage to leave
her husband, Tim. He pushed her, kicked her and insulted her almost
from the moment they married in 1994, she says. She tried to start
over with their children when the family moved from Texas to
Poughkeepsie, N.Y. It didn't last long. Tim called her constantly at
work and, after they split up, pounded on her door and screamed
obscenities, she alleged in a complaint filed in 2001. Tim was
charged with harassment. As part of a plea deal, Tim agreed to a
stay-away order--but denies ever abusing her or the children. In
custody hearings over the past six years, Tim has insisted that he's
been a good father, and argued that Genia's allegations poisoned
their children against him. The judge sided with Tim. This summer he
was granted full custody of the kids, now 11 and 9. Genia was barred
from contacting them."
More..

Judicial passivism turning fathers into
deadbeats

When mothers lose in court,
they are not made to pay court costs -- again on the premise that
this would only take money away from the children. But payment of
penalties and costs is merely a transfer between parents, and only
prejudice supports the proposition that fathers would be less
generous toward their children than mothers, given the time and
financial ability to do so.

Contrast the endless lame excuses judges use not to impose
remedies for access denial with their attitude toward making and
enforcing child-support orders.
More ..

Proclamations generally have the same riveting power as supermarket
ribbon-cuttings, but a recent one in Maine is being celebrated as a
small victory for children and noncustodial parents wounded by
divorce.

The proclamation, signed by Gov. John E. Baldacci, recognized April
25 as "Parental Alienation Awareness Day."

If you don't know what "parental alienation" is, you probably
haven't had the pleasure of a divorce with children. Veterans of
those wars know without a governor's seal exactly what it means -
agony for a noncustodial parent and emotional problems for children
alienated from one parent.
More ..

HOUSTON, U.S.A. Sexual abuse allegations in a child custody case
are not always true, and even professionals who work with these
children can have trouble distinguishing fact from fantasy in the
children's stories, Joseph Kenan,M.D., said at the annual meeting of
the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry.

When a forensic psychiatrist evaluates potential sexual abuse of
a child in a custody case, he or she considers a host of factors,
including the child's age, any physical or mental disabilities, and
a child's feelings of alienation toward one parent or history of
siding with one parent during arguments, he said at the meeting
cosponsored by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
at Dallas.

Although psychiatrists use careful questioning and
information-gathering skills to evaluate children's allegations, a
study of 12 professionals showed that none of them could tell the
difference between true and false stories after viewing videotapes
of 10 different child testimonies, said Dr. Kenan, chief forensic
psychiatrist at the Psychological Trauma Center, a nonprofit
organization affiliated with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los
Angeles.
More..

Does DSM-IV Have Equivalents for the Parental
Alienation Syndrome (PAS) Diagnosis?

The potential for psychological and physical damage
to children of divorce and the parental relationship looms as a
potential harbinger of doom over every divorce case. This specter
becomes reality when one parent interferes with the rights of
custody or visitation of the other parent by preventing the child
from visiting the other parent, or by kidnapping or secreting the
child from the parent who has the right to custody or visitation.

This article will discuss the visitation and custody
interferences that occur during divorce and alert
practitioners and judges to the psychological damage to the
children. This article will review the alternative remedies
available to circumvent custody and visitation interference
and address the problems associated with enforcing these
remedies. This examination will reveal that the available
remedies lose effectiveness proportionate to the severity of
the interference with custody and visitation rights.
More ..

Interference by one parent in the relationship of a child and the other parent is almost never in the
child's best interests. In fact, in extreme cases, actions by one parent to alienate the affections of the child from
the other parent, to interfere win the other parent's visitation rights, or to remove the child to a distant state or
country can often lead to liability in tort. See generally E. Borris, "Torts Arising Out of Interference with Custody
and Visitation," 7 Divorce Litigation 192 (1995). Tort liability is not always an option, however, as many courts refuse
to award damages based upon interference with visitation rights. E.g., Cosner v. Ridinger, 882 P.2d 1243 (Wyo.1994).
More ..

Parental Alienation Syndrome

Non-custodial parents often face a continuing dilemma, knowing how to
respond to certain mind-programming propaganda that the children receive
from the custodial parent. Every reference to the non-custodial parent is
couched in negative words: "lazy, irresponsible, un-loving, and cheapskate,"
to name a few.

The childrens emotions and behavior patterns that result from this negative
programming have been officially dubbed by the psychological community as
the Parental Alienation Syndrome , and when the parent doing the alienation
has full-time access to the children, the consequences can be devastating
to the relationship between the child and the other parent. It is also devastating
to the child as the child comes to realize that half of who they are, is
a product of that "low life" other parent.
More..

Rick James Lohstroh, a doctor at UTMB, was fatally shot this summer,
apparently by his 10-year-old son.

ABC13 Eyewitness News, Houston, Texas, U.S.A.
Dec. 29, 2004

The 10-year-old Katy boy accused of murdering his father this summer
is now the face of an unofficial psychiatric disorder that may have lead
to his father's death.

Some psychiatrists call it Parental Alienation Syndrome and they say
that's why the son killed Doctor Rick Lohstroh last summer. The syndrome
is basically caused by a bitter parent who poisons a child against the other
parent, usually in cases of divorce.
More..

Journal of
Psychosocial Nursing 1994

Parental Alienation Syndrome

A Developmental Analysis of a Vulnerable Population

The American family is changing, and divorce is no small
part of the pattern. In the United States, there are nearly
a million and a half divorces and annulments annually. It is
estimated that 40% to 50% of adults will eventually divorce
. Including the indirect effects on family and friends, the
impact of divorce has ripple effects not only for those
directly involved, but also for society and clinical
nursing.

Many children involved in divorce and
custody litigation undergo thought reform or mild
brainwashing by their parents. This disturbing fact is a
product of the nature of divorce and the disintegration of
the spousal relationship in our culture. Inevitably,
children receive subtly transmitted messages that both
parents have serious criticisms of each other. More
..

Many celebrities would shrink from view after a PR nightmare like Alec
Baldwin's leaked voice mail in which he calls his 11-year-old daughter,
Ireland, a "rude, thoughtless little pig." But Baldwin wants to
use the media scrutiny to give exposure to parental alienation, the controversial "syndrome"
caused by one parent's systematically damaging a child's relationship
with the other parent.
More..

By Nicholas Bala, Suzanne Hunt & Carrie McCarney
Faculty of Law
Queens University
Kingston, ON Canada

Alienation cases have been receiving a great deal of public and
professional attention in the past few months in Canada. As with so many
issues in family law, there are two competing, gendered narratives
offered to explain these cases. Men's rights activists claim that
mothers alienate children from their fathers as a way of seeking revenge
for separation, and argue that judges are gender-biased against fathers
in these cases. Feminists tend to dismiss alienation as a fabrication of
abusive fathers who are trying to force contact with children who are
frightened of them and to control the lives of their abused former
partners. While there is some validity to both of these narratives, each
also has significant mythical elements. The reality of these cases is
often highly complex, with both fathers and mothers bearing significant
responsibility for the situation.

Two of the many findings are:

Mothers are twice as likely as fathers to
alienate children from the other parent, but this reflects the fact that
mothers are more likely to have custody or primary care of their
children; in only 2 out of 89 cases was a parent with only access able
to alienate a child from the other parent.

Fathers made more than three
times as many unsubstantiated claims of parental alienation as mothers,
but this too reflects the fact that claims of alienation (substantiated
and unsubstantiated) are usually made by access parents, who are usually
fathers. More..